When someone tries to raise money as a way to show an opposing lawyer a "philanthropic, kind-spirited way of saying: f--- off," one wouldn't expect that lawyer to contribute to the cause. But lawyer Charles Carreon did just that after The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman launched Operation "Bear Love Good/Cancer Bad" last week in the wake of Carreon's demand that Inman hand his client a $20,000 check.

The whole debate goes back to the existence of user-generated content site FunnyJunk. Inman was upset in 2011 that many of his comics were uploaded to the site, and he complained about it publicly. A year after the initial complaint, FunnyJunk (through Carreon) demanded the cash and charged Inman with defamation. Inman's response was the Bear Love campaign, in which all the money raised would be photographed (to be sent to Carreon) but actually mailed to the National Wildlife Federation and to the American Cancer Society instead.

In a lawsuit filed Friday and made publicly available today, Carreon went after Inman, the charities, and the fundraising platform. And he revealed to the San Francisco federal court that he "is a contributor to the Bear Love campaign, and made his contribution with the intent to benefit the purposes of the NWF and the ACS."

The donation gives Carreon standing as a contributor to make the thrust of his lawsuit about the donations (there are also a few other charges tossed in). Carreon says that Inman is operating as an illicit "commercial fundraiser" and as such should face a hosts of sanctions. (The California statute he references defines such fundraisers as doing their work "for compensation." Inman would hardly seem to fit the bill)

Carreon demands that Indiegogo, which provided the fundraising platform, not get any money and that, further, none be paid out to Inman. (Indiegogo did not immediately return our request for comment). As for the charities, they "have failed to perform their statutory duty to exercise authority over the Bear Love campaign"—even after Carreon helpfully tipped them off about the campaign.

The filing is full of colorful language. A small sample: "Inman’s use of vile, despicable insinuations of bestiality directed toward the mother of Plaintiff and/or his client were unfair solicitations prohibited by Section 12599(f) of the Act, fighting words, and incitements to commit cybervandalism, none of which are entitled to constitutional protection, and perverted the socially uplifting purpose of public giving for the malicious, vindictive purpose of harassing and causing pecuniary damage to Plaintiff, as further alleged."

Once again, "old person fails to understand the internet" and brings down a giant, never-ending load of shit on his head. If he had let it go, everyone would have forgotten, but now he's probably going to be on lists of "people to screw with" for his entire life. It couldn't have happened to nicer scumbag.

The funniest thing so far is how silent Funny junk has been on all of this. Could it be that even FJ realizes how awful this looks for both them and soon to be former attorney Lionel Hutz Charles Carreon? Wouldn't it be funny if FJ fired Carreon, citing incompetence as the reason?

Advice (that he won't take): If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

In a way, this could help his business. People will hire him simply because he seems like a loose cannon with a screw loose who'll sue anyone at the drop of a hat for any reason (and if his client doesn't want to sue in the end, he'll just sue with himself as the plaintiff). This creates a huge hassle for the defendant even if the case is thrown out in response to a demurrer, and even if legal expenses are covered by donations. So people he contacts will tiptoe around him and try to placate him, which makes him ironically very effective as a plaintiff's attorney. He's like the crazy, schizo homeless guy you give wide berth to.

I would like to see IndieGoGo find (and reject) the payment. I'm wondering if it's the bare minimum, which would certainly give credence to the accusations of gaming the system to gain the right to sue. If the minimum is a dollar, it would be funny to see the NWF do 50 cents worth of wildlife work (a 1 second clip of a bear with someone shouting "save me" in the background, similar to the 1 second Superbowl commercials.

Or 50 cents of cancer prevention, done by throwing a single cell of cancer out of a window.

I think this is getting to the point where further updates aren't worthy of new articles. I'd rather have seen the earlier article about Carreon's lawsuit updated with more information than seeing a new article--that's two separate articles about the exact same event put up in one morning.

The funniest thing so far is how silent Funny junk has been on all of this. Could it be that even FJ realizes how awful this looks for both them and soon to be former attorney Lionel Hutz Charles Carreon? Wouldn't it be funny if FJ fired Carreon, citing incompetence as the reason?

The point of hiring a lawyer is that he does the talking for you. FJ is correct in staying silent.

However, if FJ was smart, they'd fire the dude and drop the whole thing.